


high, high hopes

by Flowerparrish



Series: this is the beat of my heart [2]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Teen Wolf (TV) Fusion, Getting Together, Multi, the only part of that that matters is that they live in Beacon Hills tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:46:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24281539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flowerparrish/pseuds/Flowerparrish
Summary: The way the three of them came together was… unexpected, to say the least.(AU for SashaSea's Teen Wolf AU)
Relationships: Neil Josten/Allison Reynolds/Seth Gordon
Series: this is the beat of my heart [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2015101
Comments: 14
Kudos: 21





	high, high hopes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SashaSea (SHCombatalade)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHCombatalade/gifts).
  * Inspired by [you looked at death in a tarot card (and you saw what you had to do)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18904843) by [SashaSea (SHCombatalade)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHCombatalade/pseuds/SashaSea). 



> This is VERY SPECIFICALLY an AU for SashaSea's "you looked at death in a tarot card (and you saw what you had to do)". You can read it without having read that, but you'll be pretty confused. 
> 
> If you HAVE read that, this AU is like... what if the part where it became a true Teen Wolf fusion never happened, and high school continued as normal? So werewolves still exist, but ***spoilers*** Aaron never died, Andrew and Erik never came back, Riko never comes to Beacon Hills, etc. 
> 
> This is mostly stemming from some conversations Sasha and I have had about their fic, and how Seth and Neil probably had crushes on each other in HS and didn't realize, and how maybe Seth/Allison/Neil could've been a thing if they'd all gotten their shit together (and, of course, Andrew had never been there). 
> 
> So, uh. Enjoy?

It came so late in the admission season that Neil was pretty sure he wasn’t going to get in.

He hadn’t applied for early admission, because Allison had, and she was _obviously_ going to go to Harvard – that had always been the plan – and Neil knew how unlikely it was that two students from the same small town would get into the same Ivy the same year, much less both as early admissions, so he’d put if off (in spite of Allison calling him an idiot).

Every day that his letter didn’t come, he thought to himself, grimly: _clearly, I made the right choice._

The _problem_ was that since he had applied back in the fall, he’d had time to go from wanting to get in to Harvard so he can follow Allison to wanting to go to Harvard so he could not just follow Allison (although, of course, still that, always that), but also so he could continue to be with Allison and Seth.

The way the three of them came together was… unexpected, to say the least. Neil had always had a rivalry with Seth on the lacrosse field, and he’d always had a rivalry with Allison in academics, and only one of those rivalries was going anywhere (Seth is _really fucking good_ at lacrosse, but Neil is _really fucking smart)._

But more than that, he’d always wanted to be/be with Allison, and she’d never seemed to notice. But competing with her over the years over who could outdo the other on pop quizzes led to Neil and Allison forming a genuine, if unlikely, friendship, and once he started seeing her as more than an unattainable crush—still that, but now, additionally, as _a friend—_ the crush just became that much more unattainable, right?

And Seth. Well.

Neil _may_ have realized, toward the end of junior year (around the same time he started to be genuine, if awkward, friends with Allison) that he was into guys as well as girls.

And, uh. More particularly, that he was into Seth.

Neil had learned that he had a thing for excellence. A competence kink, maybe. And Seth and Allison were nothing if not a power couple in their sheer competence.

But befriending Allison meant going to summer parties, which meant spending time around the duo of Allison-and-Seth, and when parties turned into hungover mornings drinking iced coffee in Allison’s backyard (because she was the one with a pool, and _it’s_ _about the aesthetic, Josten),_ which turned into seeing the way these two ridiculous, severe, intelligent, amazing people softened each other’s harsh edges.

Meant seeing them as _people_ , and it was a gradual descent but an all-at-once realization: Neil was in love with his best friend (well, best friend other than Kevin, who was his brother anyway and so hardly counted), but he was _also_ in love with his best friend’s boyfriend.

It didn’t change anything. He was… fine. Because in a year, they’d all go off to school, and Allison would go to Harvard, and Seth would go to MIT because he was secretly a tech genius, and Neil would go to Yale or some shit. Close enough to visit, far enough to move on.

And then, one night, they were playing some fucking combination of Truth or Dare and Never Have I Ever, and Neil lost track of things until very suddenly he _didn’t,_ because Seth had a hand cupped around his jaw and was leaning in, eyes questioning, and Neil had enough time to think _I’m so fucked_ even as he breathed, “Yeah,” in answer to the silent question.

It was, as first kisses went, a pretty good one.

Neil ran away the next morning and avoided them for a few days, but then Allison barreled in to his bedroom at six am on a Tuesday morning, dragging Seth behind her, and told Neil that they _liked_ him, and that they _missed_ him, and that she only had time for one idiot who didn’t know how to be cared about, and so Neil could either get with the program or they could go back to all being friends and forget it ever happened.

And, well. When she put it like _that…_

So Neil now had a _reason_ to want to get into Harvard. It had nothing to do with trying to one-up Allison, and everything to do with continuing this weird journey of being Neil-and-Allison-and-Seth.

But the letter didn’t come.

He got into Yale.

He got into Stanford.

He got into Emory.

He got into UC Davis with Kevin.

He got into some state university in the South Carolina that he’d never even heard of, all because they sent him a free application that was expedited and he did it because he was bored.

But the days ticked by, and he hadn’t gotten in to Harvard.

It was… _not_ fine. It was not fine. Neil told everyone that it was fine, and it _wasn’t,_ and he just wanted to _know—_

And then, one day, he got the letter.

It wasn’t a small envelope, but it wasn’t a thick package. It defied both expectations and easy classification, and he didn’t know how to open it.

He stared at it for a good half an hour, Neil sitting on his bed, leaning against the headboard, legs crossed, and the envelope at the end of his bed, as far away from him as possible, just… trying to work up the courage to open it.

And then, when that failed, he called Seth.

“Neil?” Seth’s voice was the same as always, loud and a little rough with an edge that he was only now learning to soften when it was the three of them alone. But there was concern in his tone, too; they didn’t really _call._ They had a groupchat of the three of them; it just made things easier when there was more than two people involved in a relationship. Neil and Allison called. Neil and Seth texted.

Neil was realizing, in this moment, that maybe he _shouldn’t_ have called, because he didn’t know what to say. He opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again. No words came out.

“What’s up?” Seth said again, and there was a hint of that softness under his tone, well hidden but easy for Neil to pick out.

That was enough for him to get three words free. “I need you,” he managed.

There was silence for just a moment, and then Seth said, “I’ll be there in fifteen.”

Seth doesn’t need to knock when he gets there; he and Allison both have keys. Instead, he just clambers up the stairs like a graceless elephant, and then he’s pushing his way into Neil’s room.

He takes in the way Neil is curled up, and the letter on the end of the bed, and he sighs. Neil still has enough of a conditioned response to anticipate that Seth will say something disparaging.

He doesn’t, though.

It isn’t that they don’t still snark at each other; it’s just that there’s less sincerity to it now, less bite, and they’re better at knowing when to bite back the words.

“Want me to open it?” he asks after a moment. He doesn’t wait for an answer, crossing over to the bed and kicking off his shoes as he goes, shoving at Neil until he scoots over enough to make room for Seth. Seth doesn’t try to hold him, but he does press their sides against each other, leaning against Neil a little. It’s a gesture that’s absent in a practiced way; like he’s trying to offer comfort in a way they’re both unfamiliar with, and he’s also trying to pretend that he’s not overthinking it.

Neil swallows. Shakes his head. “No,” he says after a long moment. It’s the truth, and a lie. It would be easier to let Seth do it for him. But… “I just didn’t want to do it alone.”

It’s dumb. It’s weak.

And Seth nods like it’s understandable anyway. He reaches out, picks it up and studies it for a moment, before passing it over to Neil. “Whenever you’re ready.”

Neil nods. He breathes. He thinks about how stupid this is. He got into so many other schools. He has so many options.

But this is more than a school. It’s a chance at a future with people he _loves,_ and he knows they’ll try to do distance, but that doesn’t mean he can’t _want_ this with every fiber of his being.

He slides his finger under the sealed flap of the envelope, tearing it open.

He pulls out the letter and studies it, failing to take in words for a moment.

It’s Seth’s sharp inhale, from where he’s being a nosy asshole and reading over Neil’s shoulder, that jolts him back to reality.

He skims for the words he needs and catches on _we are pleased to inform you_ and he breathes out, “holy shit,” and then, louder, “ _holy shit!”_

“Call Allison,” Seth says, and there’s excitement in his tone, but it’s like he’s trying to hold it in until they get Allison on the line.

Neil normally calls his dad first when he gets an acceptance. Then Kevin, who will always be the number one in his life.

But this one’s different. For this one, it feels right to have Seth here; it feels right to call Allison first. Because it’s as much about them as it is about him, and he’s so excited he can barely _breathe._

“What?” Allison’s voice is distracted across the line, but Neil’s not offended.

“Harvard,” he says, and then forgets words again. Instead, he holds the phone out, speaker on, and makes wide eyes at Seth.

“He got in,” Seth says, and _there_ it is, that beaming pride, the way Seth looks at him when he makes a goal in lacrosse or learns a particularly tricky bit of coding that Seth’s trying to teach him. It makes Neil feel lit up from the inside.

There’s silence for a moment, and then Allison’s off, demanding to know details Neil doesn’t even have yet, and Seth’s laughing, something bright and happy and so special for how rare it is, and Neil feels so lucky to have this. To have _them._


End file.
